As the regular season comes to an end the Oswego State women’s lacrosse team continues their road trip with only two games remaining. Coming off four straight wins, the Lakers will look to build momentum into playoffs with SUNY Oneonta and SUNY Cortland left to play. 

In the first game of the week, the Lakers traveled to Oneonta to take on the 5-9 Oneonta. Oswego would not waste any time scoring a goal in the first minute of play off the stick of Isabella Lembo. Just minutes later Lembo would find the back of the net two more times to help the Lakers jump out to an early 4-0 lead. Oneonta would try to stop the momentum with a goal from Mason Benvuento but Oswego would answer right back with four goals, two with a women-up advantage. With time winding down in the first half Oneonta would make an offensive push with three straight goals as the half ended with the Lakers in front 10-5. 

Laker’s Sela Wiley would get the secondhalf scoring started less than a minute in and Lembo would continue to shred Oneonta’s defense scoring three more goals. The Lakers would hold a comfortable 14-5 lead just halfway through the third quarter but Oneonta would begin to push the pace and attack the Lakers defense. Oneonta would close out the game on an 8-2 run and with three minutes left in the game, the Lakers lead would be cut down to three goals. Despite Oneonta’s momentum, the Lakers defense would stand tall in the final minutes and they would hold on for the 16-13 win. 

Lembo would dominate the stat sheet with seven goals on 12 total shots. Wiley would add three goals and two assists. Oswego’s goalie Sarah Kamide would finish with 13 saves to give her 100 saves on the season. 

Coming off their fifth straight win the Lakers would travel to Cortland to go up against the Cortland Red Dragons who enter the contest on their own nine-game win streak. Cortland would get the scoring party started after a free position goal from Rachel Rempe. Wiley would answer right back to tie up the game at one with her team-leading 45th goal of the season. Cortland would respond and close out the first quarter on a 6-0 run to take a 7-1 lead. The Lakers had no answer for Cortland’s offensive pressure and would find themselves down 10-3 at halftime. 

In the second half, Oswego would capitalize on a Cortland penalty with a women-up advantage from Wiley but anytime the Lakers would look to spark a comeback Cortland would answer in bunches and they would do so again with three straight goals to end the third quarter. The Lakers would begin to figure out Cortland’s defense as they would score three goals early in the fourth quarter but that would not be enough to spark a comeback as the Lakers would fall 15-7, snapping their win streak.

Wiley would lead the team in points with four and Kamide would make 11 saves. Oswego struggled to keep up with Cortland’s pace as they got outshot 38-22 and lost the groundball battle 17-12. 

With the loss to Cortland, the Lakers finish the season with a 12-4 record, 7-2 in conference play. Looking at the regular season as a whole the Lakers improved significantly compared to last season with six more wins in 2023 compared to last year. Oswego averaged 13.8 goals on 30.6 shots per game. Defensively Oswego gave up 7.9 goals on 23.6 shots per game and shut down opponents in their free positions. 

From an individual standpoint, the Lakers had some impressive performers. Leading the team and the SUNYAC in points (83) and assists (36) was Wiley. Lembo was also a force to be reckoned with as she netted 46 goals on the season. Defensively, Kamide would finish with 111 saves, 7.67 GAA, and a SUNYAC-leading 51.4 save percentage. 

As we move on to playoffs, Oswego will be the No.3 seed and will have a rematch with the No.6 seed SUNY Oneonta in round one at 4 p.m., Saturday, April 29 in Oswego.

Photo via: Oswego Athletics